1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a connector for insulation displacing connection to conducting wires, in particular for individual and repeated connection and disconnection, as occurs in telephone patch panels.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is common, in particular in the telecommunications industry, to interconnect electrical wires to terminals having insulation displacing contacts (IDC) due to the simplicity and rapidity with which the termination can be effectuated. For such termination, it is often advantageous to provide an actuator for receiving and guiding the wire into the corresponding IDC slot for connection thereto, the actuator being actuable in a reverse manner to disconnect the wire therefrom. There are many different actuation means, however there are many problems associated with the prior art, for example: delicate or complicated actuation members, large space requirements, difficulty to actuate or to release--sometimes requiring special tools, difficult access to terminate the wire or to visually inspect termination of wires. Easy access and compact configuration are important but conflicting requirements.
It is known to provide a compact actuator as shown in FIG. 6, whereby the actuator 2' has wire receiving slots 4' and a screwdriver slot 6' for rotating the actuator such that conducting wires inserted into the slots 4' are stuffed into IDC slots of terminals (not shown). Some of the disadvantages of this design, is firstly: the difficulty to visually detect if a termination is complete or not, and secondly: the parts are complicated due to the arcuate movement of the wire, and the need to provide a stop means to limit rotation of the actuator. The latter is also detrimental to reliability and cost-effectiveness.